MONITORING SUGARCANE CROPS IN THE CAUCA RIVER VALLEY (COLOMBIA), USING MODIS SATELLITE IMAGES

By  CAP.J. MURILLO, C.A. OSORIO, J.A. RBONELL and A.E. PALMA 

CENICAÑA, Colombia

pjmurillo@cenicana.org; jacarbonell@cenicana.org

Abstract 

MODIS product MOD13Q1 was used to monitor the sugarcane crop, using an enhanced
vegetation index in the Cauca River Valley for a time series from 2000–2006.
The product consists of images taken every 16 days (pixel size of 250 × 250 m),
which makes it possible to work withfields larger than 6.25 ha.
A methodology was developed for downloading, cutting, filtering and laying out the
time series of the vegetation indices on Internet for the entire area planted with sugarcane.
The relation between the time series and the information on crop establishment and
harvesting of the fields indicated that the satellite data were consistent with the phenology of
the sugarcane crop.
Similarly, there was a high correlation between the cumulative vegetation index and
cane production.
Low index values were associated with low values of tonnes of cane per hectare;
whereas high index values meant high production values.



KEYWORDS: Sugarcane, Yield Forecasting, MODIS,
Enhanced Vegetation Index, Time Series.

www.issct.org
Agricultural Engineering Posters Proc. Int. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., Vol. 27, 2010